KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s just something about auto racing. Something that turns regular people — mechanical engineers, for instance — into fanatics.

Some people love the thrill of accelerating to 60 miles per hour on a short straightaway, slamming on the brakes, then going up on two wheels in the middle of a 90 degree turn.

That’s why more than 100 racing fanatics from the Kansas City area pulled into the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot on a muggy, overcast Sunday afternoon to enter an open-entry race.

Of all the people who showed up for the race, put on by Crown Autocross Club and Kansas City Region Sports Car Club of America, four University of Kansas engineering students clearly stood out.

They were the only people who brought a Formula SAE-model car, the type of car used in college competitions sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The car stood out among souped-up street cars ranging from a late-’80s Corvette to a brand-new Cadillac.

They were also the only group driving a car completely designed and built from scratch. By students, no less.

The four students were part of the KU Formula SAE Team, a group of about 20 engineering students who design and build a race car every year. They enter the car in the major Formula-SAE competition in Detroit, in May.

Lawrence Raitinger, Parker junior, had fond memories of last year’s SAE competition, in which the team finished 12th out of more than 130 colleges worldwide. It was the KU team’s highest finish since the team was founded in 1995.

“We didn’t do anything but work on the car, but it was still a good time,” he said.

The club’s seniors do the actual design work while everyone else helps building, maintaining and racing the car. Nick Roberts, Olathe senior, said some seniors spent 50 to 60 hours a week working on the car when things really heated up.

After the SAE competition, the team races the car in area competitions in preparation for the Sports Car Club of America Solo National Championships, which will take place Sept. 13-16 in Topeka.

On Sunday, four members of the KU team drove to Kansas City to race the car and measure how it was running so they could make adjustments before SCCA Nationals.

Before the race began, Erich Ohlde, Lindsborg junior, plugged his laptop computer into the car’s high-tech computer, which measures engine speed, wheel speed and suspension travel.

After the race they took the data back to their garage in Lindley Hall and used it to make adjustments before nationals and for next year’s design.

Ohlde and Roberts each had five turns to take the car through the time trial course. Raitinger measured and recorded the car’s tire temperature after each run. More data to analyze.

Just after noon, it was time for Ohlde to climb into the car and race.

The way the race worked, an official sent a car off about every 30 seconds, at which point the driver set off around the course in a race against the clock.

On Ohlde’s third trip around, he roared through the orange cones marking the course and spun out of control as he tried to maneuver a 180-degree turn. He quickly regained control of the car and smoothly zigzagged through cones and finished the course.

Roberts, who was one of the team’s drivers at the SAE competition in May, then took the wheel and zoomed through the track quickly and gracefully without hitting a cone.

“He’s fast,” the race official standing by the finish line said. “That thing looks like it’d be a lot of fun to drive.”

He drove the car off the course to where Raitinger sat on the asphalt, ready to take the tire temperature.“It’s running hot,” Raitinger said.

Jared Anderson, Derby freshman, stood alongside Raitinger, getting his first experience with the club.

At the end of the day, the four KU students determined that adjustments needed to be made to the car’s suspension before nationals.

“The car’s a good package right now, we just gotta finish working out the bugs,” Roberts said.

After SCCA nationals, it’ll be time to start all over again and build a new car to bring to Detroit in May.